During optical fiber manufacturing and processing, the optical fibers are wound onto reels or spools which collect the fibers for further processing and/or storage. When such processing is conducted, the optical fiber normally is unwound from a first spool and rewound onto another spool after the processing has been completed. Between these spools, the optical fiber is processed in the desired manner. For instance, during fiber coloring (e.g., UV coloring), a spool of uncolored optical fiber is mounted to a pay off and the optical fiber is drawn through the coloring apparatus. After being colored, the optical fiber is brought to a take up spool which is used to collect the then colored fiber. The take up spool is driven by a motorized shaft which turns the spool to draw the fiber through the machine. Typically, a tensioning device, such as a biased dancer, is positioned between the coloring apparatus (or other processing apparatus) and the take up spool to ensure that the optical fiber is not over-tensioned during the winding process.
Despite the provision of a tensioning device such as a dancer, optical fibers can break during winding. When such a break occurs, the outer layer of the fiber collected on the take up spool should be discarded in that it is likely to be damaged and may cause either further fiber breaks and/or transmission losses when used. For example, approximately 1,200 to 1,500 meters normally are removed from a spool after a fiber break to ensure such problems do not occur.
Normally, a rewinding machine is used to remove the top layers of the fiber wound around the spool. In addition, such winding machines are used to eliminate sections of the fiber determined to be defective in some way. These machines are similar in nature to the winding machines, but operates in reverse such that the take up spool becomes the pay off spool, and another spool becomes the take up spool. Many of these rewinding machines are provided with tensioning devices similar to that described above. Furthermore, these machines normally include detectors which scan the fiber for defects. When a defect is detected, the machine quickly shuts down, normally in the span of one second, and the dancer drops, imposing a great deal of tension on the fiber. Further breaks often occur when rewinding machines are used. First, when a fiber break has already occurred, the tension applied by the machine can be too great for the damaged portions of fiber. In addition, when the machine detects a defect, the rough handling of the fiber can damage it. Accordingly, use of such machines often leads to further loss of fiber.
In addition to causing further fiber breaks, rewinding machines tend to be expensive. Due to their size, these machines also tend to monopolize large amounts of floor space. Furthermore, in that the spool comprising the damaged fiber to be discarded spins during rewinding, the operator is not able to inspect the fiber windings on the spool for damage while the fiber is being rewound. Therefore, rewinding must be periodically halted to allow the operator to inspect the fiber. This both wastes time and fiber in that this process is slow and often results in the disposal of more fiber than was originally intended.
From the foregoing, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus for removing damaged optical fiber from fiber spools which is gentle, inexpensive, and which permits inspection of the fiber windings during the removal process.